Riptide & Embers
by BabydollEyelashes
Summary: In a world where Aang died in the iceberg, Hama trains a protege, Prince Zuko seeks honor by chasing a ghost, Princess Azula deals in secrets and lies, and a Fire Nation slave named Katara accidentally bends an element other than water. In this world, the Avatar's journey begins with a bill of sale. AU. Katara's POV.


**A/N: So this is my first fanfiction! I've been lurking for so long and then this idea just wouldn't leave me alone. I have the story all figured out and everything, I got an account, and, well, here I am, posting!**

**It's in first person, Katara's POV, but it never switches POV.  
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~ ~ Chapter One ~ ~

All I had was a bill of sale.

It was all that was left of my home, of my life, of Hama, of my mother and father and Sokka. I kept it tucked inside of my shirt, between my bra and my heart. It chafed against me and that served as a reminder of what I would have to fight for. I may have been a slave, but the one thing they could not take was my memory.

I was being carted to the royal palace, which, I admit, looked a lot nicer than the block of ice I grew up on, or the decrepit town that Hama taught me waterbending in. My eyes were glassy, big, blue and salted from tears. It hurt me, it hurt my heart. I could barely cope.

I touched the bill of sale and tried to find some consolation in it.

It was not as if I could read it. Hama taught me to rip the hearts out of firebenders, my parents taught me about hope, but nobody ever taught me how to read. I was too young when I was taken from the Water Tribe, and Hama never bothered. I thought she wanted me to be ignorant so she could better mold my mind.

I touched it gently as I closed my eyes and the carriage pulled up to the palace. Two guards pulled me out by my arms, but they did not bother to chain me. They only half carried me into the palace. I blinked a few times and wondered if I could defeat them.

But this was the safest bet. Remaining a slave in the palace was the best position I could be in to eventually escape. Gaining their trust was the smartest move I could make, and bloodbending my way through a massacre would not help me. There was nowhere to run... yet.

I would escape. But not that day.

They led me to the kitchens, of all places. I was not exactly an expert chef, unless you count occasionally helping Hama with dinner. I was not a traditional slave in the slightest, and never had been raised as one. But my captors did not know that.

"Girl, you look... strong," said the woman in a filthy apron. She was pretty, but also plain, with distinctly Earth Kingdom features. I always had wanted to see the Earth Kingdom, but I guess it wasn't in the stars. "I'll put you to work on cleaning. Because you don't look like you could tell the difference between a cooking spoon and a spatula."

"I, uh," I started, rubbing my neck. "Sounds good."

I was not exactly the _plotting _type. All I knew was that I had to lay low and take orders, not that I was very good at that. Hama always said I had spirit. She said that they could never take that from me, no matter what they tried to do. And while I found myself at odds with Hama many times before, I believed her when she said that. And I believed that they could never steal my hope.

"Then get to it." A mop and bucket were shoved into my hands. I saw the water as salvation before remembering that I did not intend to smash my way out of the palace with my bending. Patience... I never exactly learned.

I took the cleaning supplies, eyeing them with a small amount of confusion, and walked to the hallway the kitchen woman was shooing me into. She did not even give me her name, which I considered _rude _to say the least. But I headed there anyway, and got down on my knees, starting to scrub.

It would be a thousand times easier if I simply bent. Almost... instantaneous. Hama taught me more about cleaning hacks than slaying firebenders, and that was a significant feat.

I glanced around the grim corridor. Portraits of Fire Lords past that all looked the same to me, maps that looked _archaic _and not a single person to be seen. Just a good deal of dust that _I _was supposed to be removing. If I was alone...

So I did it. I took a deep breath, felt the soapy water surging through my veins, and with tendrils of bending prowess, had the entire hall finished.

"Waterbender, huh?" a voice behind me said. "You're lucky I caught you and not someone more... vicious."

_Not good._

_I grew up on a block of ice, with buildings that melt, an assortment of arctic animals and general boredom. It was a boring life, but it was my life. My memory was tainted by the Black Snow but I tried not to think about it too often. I busied myself with the responsibilities of being almost an adult, and the daughter of the chief._

_ My dad went away to fight in the war, leaving me and Sokka behind. I sometimes blamed him; I sometimes understood. But I wished he had been there to protect the tribe when the Black Snow fell again, as it had over, and over and over again, until the Fire Nation was certain that there were no waterbenders left._

_ When the soot started falling from the metal ships approaching, I was practicing. Feebly trying to make water dance around like a puppeteer, but it would always end up splashing in my face. I wiped off the frigid water as it dripped down my lips multiple times. Ugh. A teacher was what I needed, but a teacher was not anywhere nearby._

_ The first soot coated snowflake fell on my shoulder. I wiped it off without thinking too much - it snowed constantly at the South Pole - and returned to trying to bend properly. But when I looked at my hand, I saw that it was smeared with black. I glanced up, big cobalt eyes focused on what was around me, and my heart fluttered with panic._

_ I started running. It was a scene that I lived a thousand times in my nightmares, and I ran as fast as my legs could carry me. Which was not fast enough, as I stumbled over the confines of my blue parka. I summoned the snow and tried to make blades of ice, but I was not strong enough._

_ Gasping, I saw one of the soldiers bringing a knife down towards my brother. No; the Fire Nation would never steal my family from me again. Not after my parents._

_ I squeezed my eyes shut, threw up my hands in some odd contortion, and felt the ice creep up around the man moving to kill Sokka. I took a deep breath, glancing around me. It looked... safe. Perhaps. I glanced around, swallowing, and as I was trying to register the fact that I just bent and I bent well, I was seized by a man much stronger than me._

_ I kicked and fought, but it was futile._

_ By the time I woke up, I was already on the Fire Nation ship._

"Yeah, I'm a waterbender," I said, turning around. The voice of the girl standing with her arms cross was smug and overly clear. I slowly stood up, gesturing at the shiny hallway. "And I just cleaned about two years worth of dust. It isn't like I was going around lobbing off heads with blocks of _ice_. So don't give me any─"

"I get it, I get it. Please shut up, your voice makes my head hurt."

I clenched my jaw. "And who are you?"

"Someone who isn't going to tell her father about your, erm, _cleaning skills_."

And the dark haired girl with the bright golden eyes walked away. I was surprised, I had to admit. From all Hama had told me about what I would face in slavery, I imagined she would have burned me or something else brutal. Then again, she did not look very imposing, although her smirk was a little on the evil side.

Maybe we could be friends. Gaining trust was a necessary step towards gaining freedom.

I picked up the empty bucket, pressed the mop against my chest, and headed into the kitchen.

"I'm done," I said, tossing the bucket on the floor.

"That quickly?" Her tone was scolding but I did not care.

Hama told me I had spirit, and I did.

_I arrived in the Fire Nation on a ship hosting a multitude of other slaves. Some of them had died, most of them were ill by the time we arrived. I was lucky and arrived mostly unscathed._

_ A bill of sale. It was what I was handed when Hama came to collect me. She was an old woman and looked to kind to be purchasing slaves, in my opinion. From what I had heard, which were mostly rumors and imaginings, slaves were not bought by kindly old women, but by brutal old men._

_ "You're from the Southern Water Tribe?" Hama asked as she guided me away from the general store I was dropped off at._

_ My mouth was dry from the gag that had been in it. I was heavy on my feet from the sedatives that had kept me asleep for the long journey. My stomach ached from the stale bread and water that were my only sustenance during the journey._

_ "I am," I said, trying to sound as kind as possible. Even if she was Fire Nation, even if she was the enemy, I would not be cruel or unkind. It was not in my nature._

_ "I've heard nice things about it," Hama said and I furrowed my brow. She made very little sense to me as we walked into a quaint inn. "You'll do the upkeep for the inn. I'm getting too old to keep up with all of the work these days."_

_ I wanted to tell her that she could hire a maid instead of purchasing another living being, but I held my tongue. She gestured to the table and I hesitantly sat down. Hama offered me a warm smile and I was even more confused. _

_ "Have something to eat. What's your name?" Hama asked, starting the fire in the stove with two green rocks. Fire was always hard to come by in my home, but here... here it was a plethora. As I was being separated from other slaves in the pier, I saw a fountain that pumped flames instead of water._

_ "I'm Katara," I said, my words slurred from the sedation._

_ "It's nice to meet you, Katara," replied Hama with a smile again and I swallowed the lump in my throat._

_ I did not know what else to say._

My first night in the palace was the hardest and the longest. I cried for most of it, sleeping on a small cot in what amounted to being a closet. My hands were raw from the work I was forced to complete, and I missed my home in the South Pole, and my home with Hama.

Why she sold me... I could not comprehend. She showed me kindness; she was from the Water Tribe. And now I was stuck in this terrible place. I knew it was only a matter of time before I could escape, but I continued to sob for hours upon hours, my knees drawn to my chest.

Someone walked in and I tensed my fingers. But it was another slave, one I had seen around working outside in the courtyard.

"It's okay; I'm not going to hurt you," he said, sitting down beside me. "The first night is always the worst. Can I touch you. I mean - not like that -"

I simply nodded, cutting him off. He wrapped his arm around my back and I breathed a small sigh of relief.

"What's your name?" I asked, baffled by the fact that no one had told me yet.

"I'm Haru," he said, his face partially covered up by the shadows of the night. "And you are...?"

"Katara. My name is Katara," I said softly, leaning in close to his warm body. "Where are you from?"

"The Earth Kingdom. I was... taken from my mining town when I was caught earthbending."

"You're a bender? I am too. I'm a waterbender," I said, feeling more excited than I should have been. After years of only Hama and a handful of firebenders, to meet an earthbender felt like a special treat.

"I've never met a waterbender before," Haru said, sounding genuinely interested.

He stayed with me for the rest of the night. I felt I had made a friend, although I still worried about the girl who caught me bending, and I wondered if it would come back to bite me.

I fell asleep beside someone, but never having felt so alone.


End file.
